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13 February 2013

The Times of Israel has an article claiming that a group of Israelis are seriously contemplating a moon shot. With a real rocket!

Now, three decades ago, Mel Brooks made "The History of the World, Part 1" (there never was a Part 2). At the end of the film, he trailered a film (which, regrettably, he never made) entitled "Jews in Space". The trailer featured stereotype ultra-orthodox Jews in a Magen David shaped space ship.

As much as anything, this is why I find it difficult to take this item seriously. I realise I should, especially when they say (or are reported as saying) things like "By 2015, there will be an Israeli flag next to Neil Armstrong’s bootprint, vows the team behind SpaceIL. They’re not kidding", and also when companies as serious as Bezeq get onboard.

The stimulus is Google offering a $30million prize for a successful moon landing and minimal exploration of the same. Why? Because "Google’s purpose, according to the company, is to jump-start private lunar exploration, which, it believes, will be a great springboard to develop new technologies and encourage young people to get more involved in science — inspired by the possibilities of private space exploration."

So read and decide for yourselves whether to take this story seriously (and I don't mean the part about stimulating private enterprise to get involved in space exploration. I'm among those who believe that this would do exactly that and be cheaper at that).

Thanks for that, Katie. I'd half remembered how funny that was. Now I remember exactly how funny it was.

If you really need a Jewish lift, look out for "Not For Glory" by Joel Rosenberg (science fiction). It has plenty of great Jewish/Zionist in-jokes and boosts. Israelis/Jews have been forced off-planet ("the Moslems took away Jerusalem, for now. We took away [Mecca] for ever."), and the IDF have become extremely effective mercenaries. That chocolate factory in Dimona proved extremely useful!

Plus, one character weighs the value to another character of Am Yisroel in one hand and the rest of humanity in the other. The character so challenged accepts that Am Yisroel outweighs the rest: thus, he is judged a barbarian.

Thanks, I've ordered the Kindle sample of Not For Glory, though I usual avoid military fiction (even as I write it), including military scifi. Did enjoy Scalzi's Old Man's War, however, which puts the obvious twist on women-in-combat.